The landscape setting of the Iron Age oppidum and Roman city of Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester) was initially explored through analysis of the available aerial photography and Lidar data over c. 1000 km2. Focusing on a 50 km square centred on Calleva, six locations with suspected later prehistoric enclosures were sampled by coring and excavation and accompanied by extensive programmes of radiocarbon dating and environmental, especially pollen analysis. Phases of activity and/or settlement were followed by abandonment and the regeneration of the woodland. Neolithic and Bronze Age activity was identified, but the first permanent settlements appeared to be of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age date. The period with the most numerous settlements is the Middle Iron Age (4th to 2nd century BC), which was characterised by hillforts and smaller ditched enclosures. Their abandonment was once again followed by woodland regeneration. At the end of the 1st century BC new settlements were founded, including the 38 ha defended oppidum in a wooded and otherwise empty landscape. A territory with a radius of c. 2 km and devoid of individual farmsteads was established around the oppidum to provide land for cultivation and grazing and it was retained with the founding of the Roman city. This territory corresponds approximately with the combined present-day parishes of Mortimer West End and Silchester. The charcoal assemblages show evidence for the management of the woodlands including for the preparation of charcoal from the Late Iron Age though the Roman and into the medieval period. Dated charcoal shows continued activity in the Environs in the post-Roman and early medieval periods including the re-occupation of the hillfort at Pond Farm.

This book explores the distinctive landscape and society of South-West England that had emerged by the Iron Age and which continued to develop during the Roman and medieval periods. A focus of the research was the long-term programme of survey and excavation on the Iron Age, Roman, and early medieval settlement at Dainton Elms Cross, in Ipplepen (Devon), which included the only Roman roadside settlement to have seen extensive excavation to the south and west of Exeter on the very edge of the Roman empire, as well as a substantial early medieval cemetery. First discovered through the reporting of an unusual concentration of Roman finds to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the site was investigated through a joint university and community project led by the University of Exeter in partnership with the British Museum/PAS, Devon County Council, and Cotswold Archaeology. What for the South-West of England was exceptional preservation meant that large amounts of animal bone, charred cereals, and human remains were preserved, alongside a regionally important material culture assemblage. The site – which had been occupied for c. 1200 years – was abandoned around the 8th century AD. A programme of documentary, place-name, and historic landscape research across a study area extending from the coast up onto Dartmoor explores the context of this major landscape change, which appears to have been associated with the appearance of hamlets and open fields, and the fragmentation of an ‘early folk territory’. Together, the excavations in Ipplepen and the wider contextual research reveal how communities living in South-West England developed a distinctive identity that reflects a well-developed understanding of their region’s natural environment alongside a degree of ambivalence to outside cultural influences.

Frontiers were an integral feature of every medieval polity, and their spaces were defined by opposing spheres of influence, contact and connectivity. As these polities expanded and contracted, often as a result of military conquest and territorial annexation, their permeable edges became defined by transformative cultural landscapes. Here, the encounters between native or resident and incoming populations, from small elite groups through to larger numbers of migrants from diverse social backgrounds, resulted in varying degrees of cultural hybridity. This came to define frontier societies, and left an enduring impact even as borderlands continued to move. They also saw the reconfiguration of political, economic and religious landscapes as frontier authorities invested in both old and new centers, with varying degrees of continuity. Today, the remains of their fortified residences represent the most striking monuments associated with former frontiers. They remain at the center of public narratives regarding state formation and cultural conflict.Adopting the definition of frontiers as both the spaces at the edges of polities and the composite societies resulting from their territorial expansion, this book presents a multi-disciplinary study of their dynamics. Focusing on the western Mediterranean, it draws on case studies of cultural landscapes shaped by two contrasting periods of conquest, regime change and state formation: the Castilian and Aragonese conquests of al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia) and the French annexation of Occitania following the Albigensian Crusade. Integrating perspectives from settlement and landscape archaeology, geoarchaeology, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, archaeometallurgy and isotopic analyses, this book provides a new framework for the study of the transformative spaces of medieval frontier societies.

The River Great Ouse in Cambridgeshire has a long history of water milling, stretching back to at least the 10th century and possibly to the Roman period. The authors use remote sensing (LiDAR), cartographic analysis, fieldwork, documents (especially contemporary litigation) and literary sources, to reveal new findings about this fascinating landscape. The Great Ouse’s watermills were recorded as the most valuable in England in the Domesday Survey. All their sites are located, several having been long-lost, and a comprehensive explanation for their national pre-eminence is given. The expansion of activity in the Middle Ages is investigated through a detailed study of the disputes arising from the competing uses of the river and its flood plain for water milling, navigation and farming. Channel features that, hitherto, have either been ignored or attributed to natural processes are shown to be the result of milling activity. The continuing impact of water milling on the landscape until its decline in the second half of the 19th century is analyzed. The authors’ findings have broader implications for the understanding of the development of water milling in lowland river landscapes; the evolution of parish boundaries; and the development of multi-channel river forms. They conclude by advocating a mapping methodology that designates landscape features resulting from water milling as heritage assets, to guide planning decisions.

Since the dawn of archaeology, the study of funerary contexts has provided invaluable insights into past societies, a trend that persists in contemporary research. Ongoing discoveries, site reevaluations, and advancements in techniques like DNA analysis continually reshape our understanding of the past.In the specific contexts we are addressing – the emergence of the first farming and herding communities in the Western Mediterranean – few regions in Europe display such systematic funerary practices. A notable example is the “Pit Burial” horizon in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. Approximately 6,500 years ago in this area, there was a significant increase in the number of found inhumations, with some clustering in cemeteries containing several dozen individuals.Despite sporadic mentions in international publications, the details of the “Pit Burials” horizon funerary practices – such as burial locations, characteristics and performed analysis – are generally not well known, primarily because most of the publications have been presented in Catalan or Spanish. This limits awareness of one of the best-documented archaeological records shedding light on Neolithic communities in the Western Mediterranean.Over a century, the northeastern Iberian Peninsula has yielded numerous Neolithic burials, totaling over 650 graves, predominantly featuring single inhumations. Many of these graves, excavated in ground pits, remain remarkably intact, facilitating interpretations of burial treatments and grave goods, indicative of time and effort invested in acquisition and production.Furthermore, this was also a period of well-established social networks, facilitating the distribution of materials such as flint, obsidian, or jadeite for crafting lithic tools, and variscite for producing ornaments across extensive territories spanning hundreds of kilometers. These networks had an impact on the social, economic, and ideological organization of these communities, as well as their interactions with other European populations. This interconnected world left archaeological traces, evident in the early stages of subsequent megalithic developments.

The human past is unimaginable without the horse. From our ancestors hunting and painting horses in the Upper Palaeolithic, to the earliest riders, the rise of equestrian empires, and the critical role of horses in war, settler colonialism, and modern state formation, human history is undeniably equestrian. Because of the deep and varied entanglements between people and horses, the study of horses of the past is inherently, and increasingly, interdisciplinary. However, scholars often do not understand the methods or know the research outside of their discipline.This book corrals a herd of specialist authors from seventeen countries that explain their disciplinary approaches and provide case studies of human-horse relationships in the past, including archaeology, history, classics, art history, literature, and veterinary medicine.This ground-covering volume overviews key methods, theory, period, and area studies. Aimed at scholars wanting to understand and incorporate research outside of their speciality, or those who wish to undertake collaborative projects, it is also designed as a starting point for students and non-specialists to pursue the study of horses in the past.

Butrint 8 is largely devoted to the Middle Byzantine archaeology discovered by the Butrint Foundation’s projects at Butrint itself, in its environs, and in the nearby port of Saranda, ancient Onchesmos. The volume includes a full report on the excavations in Butrint’s western defenses, built in the 6th century as a proteichisma, and maintained in use until the 9th century when tower 1 partly perished in a fire and tower 2 was abandoned. From these 9th-century levels came a major assemblage of traded and local ceramics as well as glass cullet. The report also describes the reuse of the defenses until the 16th century when Butrint was abandoned. This volume also includes a section devoted to Butrint’s Middle Byzantine enclave occupying its hinterland, including a new study of the Dema (boundary) wall, the hilltop fortress of Çuka e Aitoit and an excavation of a settlement on the plain opposite the town. The third part of the book focuses upon Saranda, ancient Onchesmos. This includes a short report on excavations made in the port that brought to light Middle Byzantine remains as well as a major reassessment of the sanctuary church of Santa Quaranta, re-examining its Late Roman origins and its major rebuilding in the Middle Byzantine period. Butrint 8 is a benchmark for research on the Middle Byzantine period in the southern Adriatic Sea region, shedding light on an age when Butrint lay on the western limits of Byzantium, on the long-distance trade of this period, and on the character of settlement in this period.

Early medieval stone sculptures survive across Europe: at waysides, in architectural settings and in churches and graveyards, and provide an exceptional source for understanding the aesthetics and beliefs of early medieval communities. England is no exception to this. Thousands of intact and fragmentary stone monuments survive from the seventh to eleventh centuries CE, evidencing the emergence of a rich Anglo-Saxon sculptural tradition in stone. These often elaborately carved monuments that were generally painted – some with considerable sophistication – and could be inset with paste glass and metal, provide clear evidence of a rich and new form of visual material culture connected with the Church in the region. Some monuments acted as liturgical markers, others as markers of working relations between secular and ecclesiastical communities, while others still commemorated the dead, and some fragments demonstrate the ways in which stone buildings were decorated both inside and out. By the tenth century, stone crosses and monuments were frequently commissioned by the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian secular elites, demonstrating strong connections between sculptural commemoration, power, and identity. For decades, the celebrated project, the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, has provided information on these monuments, cataloguing each example in terms of date, geology, and decoration. This multi-authored volume draws on the expertise of many specialists connected with the Corpus to provide a first accessible national overview of the resource. Thematic chapters reflect on discoveries to date and archaeological and art historical approaches to researching and understanding sculpture. Key themes include quarrying and production, chronology, the intellectual and artistic context for sculpture, aesthetics and iconography, and the places and contexts of sculpture use. This extensively illustrated volume introduces Anglo-Saxon sculpture in its broader European context and offers a stepping-off point for all those wanting to learn more and research these often-enigmatic fragments.

Textile tools offer a fascinating and yet intimate approach to ancient people. Textile production has been one of the core activities for millennia, spanning from domestic production to royal needs. Textiles were light and easy to transport goods, often exchanged over long distances. Technology and knowhow, however, might not have always traveled so easily. This work examines spinning and weaving tools from the Southern Levant (inland and coastal) and Egypt. The chronology of the study is broad, ranging from the Neolithic until the beginning of the Persian period (600 BC). The objects are investigated from both a diachronic and synchronic perspective to understand their evolution and continuity of use, as well as regional differences and textile production methods. The two areas present an only apparent discontinuity, as political boundaries gave way at various historical moments and the two areas had very close contacts, such as during the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt or the Egyptian domination of the Late Bronze Age. This seems to be reflected in textile documentation, which shows the appearance of Egyptian tools in the Levant, such as spinning bowls, and Levantine tools in Egypt, such as loom weights. However, the result is not so predictable.

Heritage and Education are often cited together as two areas that could equally benefit from co-application and dialogue. This book includes some of the papers that were presented at the ‘Education VIA Culture’ conference, which was held online in December 2020. The chapters of this volume focus on how people can learn about heritage and engage with heritage through educational (formal or non-formal) processes. In the VIA Culture understanding, the best way to create awareness about cultural heritage is not just to focus on education about heritage but to make heritage a part of the educational process. Education VIA Culture brings together academics, researchers, education practitioners, teachers, heritage professionals, and students, and generates a broad discussion about the possible applications of cultural heritage in formal and non-formal education. The papers in the volume present methodological approaches to the use of cultural heritage—local, regional, or international—as a teaching medium. Various case studies from Greece, Italy, Serbia, Portugal, the UK, and the USA, where cultural heritage was mobilized as a teaching medium, are presented.In this volume, the role of museums, archaeological sites, exhibitions, and heritage landscapes in education is prominent through applications that vary from Ottoman monuments in Thessaloniki, Greece, to the industrial landscapes of Cardiff, UK, and the world-famous Acropolis of Athens. Heritage assets in many of the case studies presented in the volume have inspired art-based teaching applications through drama, theatre, music, and storytelling. Digital applications for heritage education are also presented. Finally, the volume promotes the idea that in an increasingly diverse Europe, the cultural heritage of ethnic and social minorities can be used as a medium for creating inclusive and equal societies.

The modern discipline of archaeology developed in tandem with the expansion of European imperialism in the 19th and 20th centuries. Cyprus, ruled by Britain between 1878 and 1960, is a fascinating example of how archaeology was practiced and developed in a specific colonial context. This volume explores the mechanisms, the institutions and the characters who contributed to the development of Cypriot archaeology, often within a fraught political environment. The 23 papers in this volume address aspects such as the role of local agents within a colonial environment; changing attitudes towards and interpretations of cultural heritage; the export of excavated materials and their onward journeys; the development of legal frameworks to prevent looting, and their practical application; co-operation and competition between different nation-states at the peak and decline of empires; the conflicts caused by economic priorities; and the impact of institutions and individuals who attempted to support or control rights over the heritage of the island. Through the lens of British-period Cyprus they trace the evolution of institutions and practices that remain important for archaeology in Cyprus to this day.This volume will be of interest to archaeologists, cultural heritage practitioners, museums, and anyone with an interest in the history of Cyprus.

This facsimile reissue of the 1975 second edition of Iversen’s Canon and Proportion brings back into print a seminal work originally published in 1955. Iversen describes a canon – that is, a set of rules of proportions – advanced and used by the artists of Egypt. In order to interpret the stylistic message of the Egyptian system of proportion he undertakes a study of the principles of its construction, an analysis of its modules and presents an unambiguous numerical definition of the ratios governing its units and parts, demonstrating its use with illustrated examples. He contends that much of the art, especially tomb art, was never intended to be seen by mortal eyes and, as such, was designed to follow a set of rules governed by the requirements of religious and cultic traditions rather than purely aesthetic considerations. Painting and sculpture were largely not primarily things of beauty but magical entities fraught with fateful significance. The development and use of a grid for practical application of the system can still be seen in tomb paintings and is demonstrated in the proportional correctness of statues. The system was based on an accurate standardization of the natural relations of the various parts of human anatomy, such as the relation of palm to forearm and forearm to height, expressed in simple numerical terms geometrically reflected in grids based on the fist. Iversen’s treatise was not without controversy but this fascinating study remains a hugely important contribution to the interpretation of Egyptian art.

This facsimile reissue of Anthea Page’s catalog of the stone and wooden statuary in the Petrie Museum makes available again a major corpus of material. The bulk of statuary in the museum was purchased since the finest sculpture from Petrie’s own excavations rightly went to Cairo and other museums. While the sculpture in his own collection covers the whole length of Egyptian dynastic history illustrating many different schools and qualities of workmanship, it does not provide a comprehensive view of the art of the Egyptian sculptor. Nevertheless, the 174 items described and discussed cover a wide range of subjects and forms. Statues of gods and animals and types loosely classifiable as ‘figurines’ or ‘models’ are deliberately excluded and the corpus focuses on representations of royalty, priests, officials and unknown individuals (men and women), of varying status and possible ethnicity in a variety of poses. Statues of multiple individuals are represented as well as a statuette of a man and a monkey. The catalogue is preceded by an introduction by H. S. Smith outlining the history of Egyptian portrait sculpture, the religious ideas behind it and nature of patronage, and is accompanied by detailed drawings and translations of associated inscriptions. All pieces are illustrated by photographs.

This is a facsimile reissue of part I of H.M. Stewart’s three part complete catalogue of the inscribed stelae, reliefs and paintings acquired by Flinders Petrie from his many Egyptian excavations and intended as a teaching collection. Over 200 monuments of the New Kingdom are described, translated and illustrated with comments on techniques and materials, and details of provenance, date and bibliographical references. The first section deals with royal monuments, mainly from the Theban mortuary temples and the Memphite temple of Ptah. This is followed by a section on relief sculptures for Amarna. Funerary stelae are divided into Osirian and Solar types and are followed by the votive stelae of private individuals. Many of the finest reliefs come from private tombs. The descriptions are accompanied by 53 plates of detailed scale line drawings. More than two-thirds of the monuments had never been published before this catalogue appeared and it was hailed, and remains, a major resource for scholars into this spectacular period.

This is a facsimile reissue of part III of H.M Stewart’s three part complete catalogue of the inscribed stelae, reliefs and paintings acquired by Flinders Petrie from his many Egyptian excavations and intended as a teaching collection. Over 140 monuments, primarily of the Late Period are described, translated and illustrated with comments on techniques and materials, and details of provenance, date and bibliographical references. Royal and official monuments are more sparsely represented than for the earlier periods but include several items of particular interest, including a stela with a long hymn to Osiris and another recording a work of restoration at Abydos under Osorkon I. the continuing development of private stelae includes a common type showing owner at worship with many examples displaying scenes and inscriptions painted rather than carved on wood or limestone. Small votive stelae are dedicated to, for example, Thoth, Min, Ptah and Isis and include magical stelae intended to cure snake bites, scorpion stings etc. The catalogue also includes miscellaneous statute fragments, some being more recently identified pieces from earlier periods, including those identified as representing prince Khaemwesat, son of Ramesses III and Rekhmire, vizier of Tutmoseis III. The descriptions are accompanied by 48 plates of detailed scale line drawings.

This volume celebrates the academic life of prof. Raymond Corbey. It gathers contributions by diverse scholars and professionals from both science and society to engage with a range of key topics Raymond has grappled with at different stages of his capricious career. The volume not only provides an opinionated portrait of Raymond as an academic persona and sometimes controversial scholarly figure, unpacking key tropes of his intellectual journey such as “sitting on the fence” or the “embedded philosopher” and academic “jester”, it also illustrates the wide-ranging and inspirational nature of his work. As a “boundary-worker” seeking to re-negotiate the limits, opportunities and contributions of various disciplines, the volume reflects Raymond’s critical but always provocative engagement with issues such as theory-building, alien civilizations and cosmic evolution, nonhuman sentience, the politics of species, Darwinism, the Maussian gift, human nature, hand axes, the mark of the intentional, diamonds, the structure of the European Mousterian, the relation between cultural anthropology and archaeology, liminality and the marginal, ritual and religion, cats, primates, language, heritage and the many legacies of Western thinking and acting in the world. Taken together, these individual contributions showcase the immense scope – temporal, geographic and topical – that defines Raymond's unique scholarly venture which continues to animate many of his friends, colleagues and former students.The volume will be of interest for a broad readership in academia and beyond, and for the first time brings poignant essays from philosophy to archaeology into conversation, which comment on, continue, or critique the scholarship Raymond embodies. This scholarship defies the contemporary tendency of hyper-specialization, and sometimes scholasticism, and inspires us to transcend the self-erected boundaries of academic and public cathedrals in our thinking and acting alike.